Scientists Make Sheep Model of Huntington's Disease

By inserting the gene responsible for Huntington's disease into sheep, a A New Zealand scientist has created the most complex model yet of the debilitating condition, which leaves victims physically and mentally destroyed.

Researchers say the sheep won't be allowed to develop Hungtington's, but instead will be used to study the poorly-understood progress of the disease during its earliest stages.

"Because sheep live for 10 to 15 years, we are hopefully going to have at least a two-year pre-symptomatic window though which we can trial drugs to see if they can halt the disease before the symptoms start,"
Jacobsen told BBC News. [...]

"The beauty of this model is that we will be able to look at the very earliest stages of the onset of the disease because that's when you're going to have to go in and get this gene - turn it off, turn it down, not make it so hostile, as well as preserving its normal functions,"
Professor Faull said.

Huntington's hope from lab sheep [BBC]
*
Image: Thomas Mues*